Pinata breaking celebrations are quite popular in Mexico and in the Mexican communities of the Southwestern United States. Pinatas are traditionally a pot or container ornamented with colorful paper and filled with candy, nuts confetti and/or token gifts such as small toys and the like. The pinata is suspended above a party area and at the appropriate time and with celebration it is broken so that the treats are scattered among the guests who in turn can keep whatever they collect. The usual method of breaking the pinata is by beating it with a club or cane and this is either done by a blindfolded child who is the subject of the celebration or by several children in succession, each given a certain number of turns in which to break the pinata. Unfortunately, as a result of the enthusiasm of the guests in gathering close to the pinata so as to obtain a large number of candies or gifts, it occasionally happens that a child is hit by a club or cane. Additionally, the traditional pinata is made of clay pottery and large falling fragments can cause injury to a young child. Modern pinatas are often made of paper-mache, avoiding the dangers of cracked clay fragments, but such pinatas are generally more difficult to break, requiring greater swings with the resultant danger from that aspect to the children. In my prior application Ser. No. 617,602, I provide a pinata having a bottom surface formed with at least one line of weakness so that it will break away upon successive pulls or jerks on a suspension line. In my prior application Ser. No. 758,215, I provide a pinata which collapses upon puncturing of a balloon. Such pinatas require replacement of at least one component for each pinata use.
The present invention provides a pinata which is completely resuable. The pinata is formed of walls that define a substantially enclosed chamber for containment of candies and favors including a first wall and a second wall cooperating with the first wall. Means are provided for suspending the pinata and holding the first wall in assembled relationship with, but free of direct attachment to, the second wall. The suspending and holding means can be released so that the first wall can be displaced with respect to the second wall thereby releasing the candies and favors.
In a first embodiment, a tiered, cylindrically-shaped pinata is vertically divided into two equal sections, one section defining the first wall and the other section defining the second wall. A suspension line supports the second wall and a holding line dependent from the suspension line extends through openings in the top and bottom surfaces of the first wall to a holding pin positioned in an opening in the bottom surface of the second wall. Dependent from the holding pin is a pull-line which is concealed within a plurality of similar decorative strings or ribbons extending downwardly from the pinata bottom surface. Removal of the pull-pin from the second wall allows the first wall to drop vertically with respect to the second wall thereby providing an opening through which the candies and favors can fall.
A further embodiment of the invention consists of a tiered, cylindrically-shaped shell open at the bottom defining the first wall and a laterally extending bottom surface defining the second wall. In this embodiment, a suspension line terminates in a loop and extends through an opening in the top of the first wall and into a protrusion extending upwardly from the inner surface of the second wall. The protrusion has a laterally extending bore for containment of a pull-pin. When the pinata is assembled, the pull-pin is positioned in the laterally extending bore and through the suspension line loop. The first wall rests upon and is supported by the second wall which is frictionally lodged therein. The pull-pin is connected to a pull line which is similarly concealed among a plurality of similar decorative strings or ribbons depending downwardly from the bottom perimeter of the first wall. Pulling of the pull-pin releases the second wall and then impacts against the bottom wall to dislodge it, allowing the candies and favors to fall to the ground. In broader terms, though less desirable, the embodiment can be practiced, and therefore encompasses, by omitting the pull pin and instead providing a knot at the inner end of the string or ribbon (or other impact means) to impact against the bottom wall. In this latter version, the pinata would simply be suspended from the top.